Farha, Mark. “
Secularism Under Siege in Lebanon’s Second Republic.”
History and MES, 2007.
Publisher's VersionAbstractSecularism, defined simply as the full neutrality of the state in its relations with citizens, has failed to be instituted comprehensively in Lebanon, the sole Arab state whose constitution as of 1926 does not establish an official religion of state or jurisdiction. A multi-communal country par excellence, the modern Republic of Lebanon has narrowly escaped the fate of partition India, Palestine or the former Jugoslavia suffered as a result of inter-communal contest.
This dissertation traces the evolution of secular and sectarian forms of government in Lebanon from pre-modern times until the present day. The genealogy of secularism is examined as a discursive ideology, as a byproduct of socio-economic development and as an embodiment of non-discriminatory political, legal, and institutional practice. The thesis proposes that Levantine history exhibited trends towards secular nationalism as early as the sixteenth century, while presenting multiple reasons why secularism was not ratified to a greater degree by the end of the twentieth.
Thematically, the thesis moves from a broad, sweeping overview of the historical contours secularism developed on a global and regional plane to individual case studies illustrating the predicament of secularism in contemporary Lebanon. The sequence of chapters relates secularism to (proto-) nationalism, (Bonapartist) republicanism, consociationalism, capitalism, civic school curricula in history and religion, a deconfessionalized body of personal status laws and Lebanon's contemporary religious and political discourse.
The thesis argues that the political transformations Lebanon passed through, and the difficulties secularism has encountered, were different in form, but not altogether in kind, from those attendant on other countries. Comparable multi-communal cases such as the Swiss analogue are adduced as edifying examples which may relativize the preconception of exceptionalism.
Gaining a deeper understanding of Lebanon's long engagement with confessional diversity may help account for the intensity of periodic communal conflict while explaining why secularism was recognized from early on as all the more vital and pragmatic necessity for the survival of a model of coexistence. The apparent paradox posed by Lebanon is that of a country which has served at once as the "cradle and grave" ("mahd wa lahd") of Arab secularism.
Muslu, Emire Cihan. “
Ottoman-Mamluk Relations: Diplomacy and Perceptions.”
History and MES, 2007.
Publisher's VersionAbstractThis dissertation analyses the relationship between the Ottoman and the Mamlūk powers from the mid-fourteenth century to 1512, or from the inception of Ottoman-Mamluk diplomatic relations through the rule of Bāyezīd II. During this period, the relationship between these two powers underwent a transformation. In reconstructing this transformation, previous scholars have chosen to focus on moments of conflict and war. However, the two regions in which the Ottoman and Mamlūk powers ruled were connected by a wide range of political, diplomatic, social, cultural, and commercial networks that were established long before the emergence of the two powers. Such networks were a part of Ottoman-Mamlūk relations, as was the hostility, which became prevalent in the interactions between the Ottoman and the Mamlūk rulers after the 1450s. By studying these networks and by placing particular emphasis on diplomatic ones, this dissertation reevaluates the interactions between the two powers.
While narrating the relationship between the Ottomans and the Mamlūks, the dissertation also examines diplomatic incidents that took place between the two courts. Primary sources that report about the contacts between the two powers put a particular emphasis on those diplomatic incidents. This emphasis not only reveals the significant role of diplomacy in the communication between rulers, but also offers critical insight into the minds of sovereigns. Through meticulously crafted letters and carefully chosen envoys and gifts, rulers exchanged their political visions and mutual perceptions. By studying such diplomatic culture and the symbols embedded in it, this dissertation attempts to illuminate both the changing mutual perceptions of these two societies and the diplomatic conventions that were practiced in the larger Medieval Islamic world.
Terem, Etty. “
The "New Mi’yar" of al-Mahdi al-Wazzani: Local Interpretation of Family Life in Late Nineteenth-Century Fez.”
History and MES, 2007.
Publisher's VersionAbstractIn 1910, al-Mahdi al-Wazzani, a distinguished Maliki mufti of Fez, published an extensive compilation of Maliki fatwas and named it the New Mi'yar (al-Mi'yar al-jadid, or the New Standard Measure). This dissertation investigates the New Mi'yar as a mufti's interpretation of his society. Al-Wazzani thought with his fatwas, and I unpack the way he discursively constructed his world and conveyed it in his fatwa compilation. The family serves as a unit of analysis and a conceptual framework, and the New Mi'yar provides the arena for exploring al-Wazzani's interpretation of the Fasi family. This study, informed by discourse analysis and cultural anthropology, contributes another strategy for reading fatwa literature by offering a methodology for the investigation of fatwas as cultural texts. My point of departure is that the juridical opinion, even in its most specialized version, is a cultural phenomenon that takes place within a certain human culture and projects its internal logic. With this in mind, I approach al-Wazzani's New Mi'yar as an embodiment of a specific society as seen through the eyes of one mufti.
Taken together, chapters one and two present a portrait of al-Mahdi al-Wazzani and his New Mi'yar. Chapter one is a detailed account of al-Wazzani's biography. In chapter two, I investigate the New Mi'yar —that is, the historical circumstances of its production, and its nature and characteristics. Chapters three and four focus on al-Wazzani's juristic interpretation of the family in late nineteenth-century Fez. These chapters are particularly concerned with the relationship between property and family. Chapter three is an exploration of the way al-Wazzani conceptualized the association between religious endowments and the family. Chapter four examines al-Wazzani's interpretation of women's relationships to their maintenance. These chapters offer a sense of al-Wazzani's understanding of the patriarchal-patrilineal familial order. I argue that al-Wazzani understood the Fasi family as a social unit anchored in patrilineal ideology of kinship and patriarchal ideals and norms as expressed in shari'a law. However, this family form as constructed by al-Wazzani was a highly complicated unit, marked by contradictions and conflicts. Above all it was a dynamic set of relationships between individuals and was the product of negotiation and construction.